American Pale Ale in the fermentor

This wort tasted pretty good before I added the yeast. A couple of things I did different was that I steeped the specialty grains for 30 minutes in about 1.5 gallons (heated to 165 F). After the 30 minutes I put the spent grains in a strainer and poured hot water (about 2 quarts) over them in a process I will call faux sparging. During the steep, I had mixed the DME into about 1.5 gallons of cold water. I merely dumped the DME into the hot wort in liquid form. I am not sure if this was better but it took some of the stress out of dumping that much DME into hot water.

I also added the Cascade boil at the initial boil then added flavoring Willamette hops 45 minutes into the boil then again 60 minutes into the boil. The last set of Willamette hops took the boil for 2 minutes and should provide a nice aroma. I am thinking of stopping by the local homebrew store (LHBS) to buy another ounce of hops to dryhop the beer once I transfer it to the conditioning vessel.